Worldwide The biggest renowned meteorite, in Ensisheim in France, I noticed that there were many dealers in Morocco. Unlike most Europeans and Americans – who had windows and labels and books – Moroccan stands were minimalist. Perhaps a white leaf covered with pieces of reddish brown rock. A pair of scales. Sometimes a piece of paper with prices per kilo written in Biro. It was only in England that I learned about the Saharan gold rush.
Since 1999, the number of meteorites found in Morocco has exploded. The officially recognized number exceeds a thousand – although this is described by scientists as “a raw underestimation”. As a comparison, the United Kingdom has only 23 falls and discoveries.
“You have to speak to Hasnaa,” a dealer wrote to me, Darryl Pitt. “She tried – and has succeeded somewhat – by turning chaos of the North African meteorite trade in something more ordered.” It was not the first time that his name had come.
Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane, professor at the University of Hassan II of Casablanca, is used to being abroad in the room. At meetings of Meteoric company Committee for the nomenclature of meteorites, the group responsible for officially appointing recognized meteorites, it was, when it was a member, “the sole representative of any Arab or Muslim country”. (She remains a consultant with the committee.) When I addressed the subject of exports of Morocco, she groaned. “The situation with Moroccan meteorites is crazy,” she says. “It’s contrary to ethics.”
Towards the end of the last century, several factors combined to make Morocco a hot spot of the meteorite. First, climate and geography. Allowing the difference in the total surface, a meteorite is also likely to land in Scottish highlands than in the Sahara, but in the first, it will be much more difficult to find – Heather, rocks – and “Terrestrialize Much faster – rain, mud, snow. Most (but not all) meteorites reach the earth with dark fusion crust. In the Sahara, these rocks stand out against the sand.
Secondly, Morocco already had a network of fossil, mineral and archaeological dealers Western, while many Moroccans – members of nomadic groups in particular – were very qualified to search for rocks and artifacts in the desert. When I walked with my herd, I looked at the ground, “said a nomad to a journalist in the eye of the Middle East. The stone company, he said, had saved many nomadic families of poverty.
Third, the legal and geopolitical situation of Morocco has helped things. “We are, thank God, a peaceful country,” says Chennaoui. “It’s something unique in the region.” Here, it is (relatively) sure to walk in the Saharan sands looking for stones. In addition, there was no regulations dedicated to the country’s meteorites. If you found a meteorite in Morocco, it was probably yours with what you liked.
The American concessionaire Michael Gilmer places the start of the Saharan gold rush in the mid -1990s. Foreign dealers quickly discovered that non -classified meteorites could be purchased from Moroccan merchants at very low prices, officially analyzed in the ‘West and sold for considerable profit.
The city of Erfoud, in the southeast region of Drâa-Tafilalet, Morocco, known as “the front door of the Sahara”, has become a hub for those who hope to earn money Meteorites. A visitor will find stores selling meteorites and fossils, some with small ad hoc museums. Some nomads have diversified to take tourists and collectors to the desert to search for stones.
